Author champions modernist Chinese silk weaving

• Published date: 09 September 2021
• Publication title: Shanghai Daily

LINDA Lin is weaving a modern-day silk road with an eye to cultural exports. A patron of modernist kesi, a technique of Chinese silk weaving, she is trying to smash its antiquated image and revive it as a modern day Chinese luxury.

It's not a casual decision.

Lin was brought up in Jiangnan, or regions south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where silk production is a tradition, and years of overseas study in Europe opened her eyes to a vibrant arts scene. Out of China's dazzling array of intangible cultural heritages, she found kesi provides a perfect introduction.

In fact, kesi itself is a vivid manifestation of East-meets-West cultural fusion. After it was introduced into China thousands of years ago, the craft of making tents was carried over to the realm of art. As it, in turn, went westward, it became a sought-after luxury.

Like many other traditions, kesi is a dying art. But in recent years, it has seemed to reembrace a boom after 100 years of bust and is making its way to be a classic of the times thanks to Lin's relentless pursuit of a renaissance in kesi.

Over the past 14 years, Lin has been working with internationally acclaimed Chinese contemporary painters, such as Liu Ye, to produce designs, a way that she believes will allow kesi to become aesthetically acceptable to modern tastes.

Last October, a kesi work based on Liu's painting "Girl with Mondrian" was sold at a Poly auction for 3.22 million yuan (US$496,846), beyond many experts' expectation. Buoyed by an optimistic buyer market, she has sounded a confident note that modernist kesi will progress.

She seems to have found a way to grant an old tradition a new lease of life.

"We can't rely too much on governments to preserve and pass on intangible cultural heritage," she said. "They should live in the marketplace, and it requires innovation."

lmost like an accident of nature, kesi has been developing with innovations and renovations.

Originating in ancient Egypt as a type of material used in weaving tents, kesi first arrived in China in the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) through the ancient Silk Road. As it gradually spread from the far west to the central plains, it changed.

The Song Dynasty (960-1279) is considered as the heyday of kesi when it was used to make replicas of paintings and calligraphy works.

Emperor Huizong, a fatuous king but gifted artist, even established many highly skilled dye-houses for kesi artworks. For example, the blue dyeing workshops at that time could mix out 24 kinds...